| Detroit Free Press
Detroit Lions vs. Arizona Cardinals: Beat writers make predictions
Dave Birkett and Bob McManaman share thoughts, predictions on Detroit Lions vs. Arizona Cardinals, coming Sept. 27, 2020, in Glendale, Ariz. Filmed Sept. 22.
For two years running, Danny Shelton was a key part of one of the NFL’s best rush defenses. This year, after leaving the New England Patriots for the Detroit Lions in free agency, he most certainly is not — and he’s taking his new team’s struggles defending the run personally.
“Honestly, that just, that’s part of the D-tackle, D-line room,” Shelton said Wednesday. “We just take all the blame upfront cause it starts with the guys upfront. We got to be solid upfront. If we’re going to stop the run, we’ve got to do it upfront first.”
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The Lions have allowed a league-worst 408 yards rushing through two games, and their inability to stop the run has led to a slew of issues on the defensive side of the ball.
They’re one of two teams, along with the Houston Texans, without a takeaway. They rank last in pass-rush win rate, according to ESPN, where their dismal 19% win rate is significantly lower than the 31st-ranked Cincinnati Bengals (30%). And in last week’s loss to the Green Bay Packers, their defense was on the field for nearly 35 minutes thanks in part to two clock-chewing 12-play drives.
“Run defense is something that I’ll talk about Day 1 when we start installing and Day 1 when we start going through everything,” Lions coach Matt Patricia said. “Certainly, there’s a lot of work that goes into run defense and getting everybody on the same page and trying to get better. We’ve got to do that, we’ve got to improve.”
The Lions have struggled to stop the ground game for most of Patricia’s two-plus seasons in Detroit.
In 2018, they ranked among the league’s worst rush defenses for half the season, but finished 10th overall after acquiring Damon Harrison in an October trade. Last year, with Harrison injured and ineffective, they dropped to 21st, then went out and signed Shelton as his replacement.
Shelton said he has essentially the same responsibilities he had playing nose tackle for the Patriots’ sixth-ranked run defense last season, yet he’s not having a sliver of the same success.
Personally, Shelton has eight tackles but none for loss through two games. Collectively, the Lions are allowing a whopping 6.5 yards per carry.
“Personally, I don’t like giving up 100-plus yards, 200-plus yards (rushing),” Shelton said. “So that’s just something that as a group we’re going to have to step it up even more, get into the film even more and really just continue to have more pride with it.”
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The Lions allowed 149 yards rushing in their season-opening loss to the Chicago Bears, though much of that production was hollow. The Bears had largely abandoned the run by the time they mounted their fourth-quarter comeback.
Last week, the Lions surrendered 259 yards rushing and two touchdowns on the ground against the Packers; Aaron Jones had a back-breaking 75-yard run on the first play of the second half; the Packers averaged 7.4 yards per rush for the game and the Lions did not make a single run stop behind the line of scrimmage.
Their 259 yards allowed was their worst performance against the run since 2013, when they gave up 299 yards rushing in a blizzard against the Philadelphia Eagles.
“I don’t think (our run defense has) sat with anybody — myself, the players, anybody — very well,” defensive coordinator Cory Undlin said.
Undlin declined to identify the root of the Lions’ problems defend the run, saying “it doesn’t matter at this point.”
But whatever they are, the Lions risk letting their season slip away if they don’t solve them quickly.
This week, the Lions (0-2) visit the Arizona Cardinals, who rank fifth in the NFL at 170 yards rushing per game and have the added dimension of one of the NFL’s most mobile quarterbacks in Kyler Murray. Next week, they host Alvin Kamara and the New Orleans Saints.
“We’re going to move forward and we’re going to get it fixed,” Undlin said. “No panic right now in our room with any position group. We are all aware of the fact that we haven’t played great in the first two weeks and we’re 0-2. So, you can point to anything you want. We’re 0-2 right now. Starts with me, and our goal is to get it fixed this week and we’re going to do everything we can, starting tomorrow, to get that fixed.”
Contact Dave Birkett at dbirkett@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @davebirkett.